


and i swear i do

by the_parentheticals



Category: Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children - Ransom Riggs
Genre: Gen, Haircuts, How Do I Tag, Important Haircut, Light Angst, My First AO3 Post, irene is just one big self indulgence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-26
Updated: 2018-12-26
Packaged: 2019-09-28 04:32:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17175962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_parentheticals/pseuds/the_parentheticals
Summary: he is a real person, and she must remember that. any way possible.





	and i swear i do

millard had never been particularly proud of his looks. he didn’t talk much about it but he wasn’t. he was too tall and he was awkward.

irene was the opposite. she knew she was pretty. she talked a lot about it, but only to herself. she was short, even for her age, and she liked it.

the exception for both of them was their hair.

millard had honey-blond hair, which was maybe kind of an odd colour, but he made it work, even when it was messy, which was always. the right side always grew a little faster than the left, but it was nice anyway, especially since it was curly and hard to notice.

irene had much lighter hair than either of her parents had ever had. not enough to look unnatural, just enough to be classically beautiful. not that she liked it, of course. the opposite. her mother didn’t like when she cut it. so she didn’t. it was a shame, since it was straight and a little wavy and easy to cut.

when millard started turning invisible, he stared at himself in the mirror every day. irene stopped to look, too, but mostly she just shut her eyes and tried to remember him forever.

two years later he was gone and irene still missed him. she had taken to staring at herself in the mirror, something she’d rarely done. she didn’t think about the fact she was beautiful. she was just afraid she’d become invisible. she ran a hand through her hair.

no, she’d remember him in any way possible. even though her parents had shoved all of millard’s photos in the closet. she wouldn’t forget. she wasn’t allowed to.

she raced to her mother’s room and grabbed her precious sewing scissors, then ran back to the bathroom and stared at herself, as if daring her to do it. but she gave a nod and started cutting.

first to just past her shoulders. then, remembering the thing about millard’s hair, shorter on the left so the hair made a slightly diagonal line. yes, she decided, that suited her. the cut was a little ragged, but that was fine. it felt more real that way.

then she went into millard’s room. her parents had shoved all of millard’s unnecessary belongings in the closet and used the rest. it was war. she couldn’t blame them. but still, she missed him and she wished her parents would at least acknowledge him.

she went to the closet and took out millard’s old clothes. understandably, he hadn’t bothered packing most of them when he left. she changed into them. they were simple, but they fit.

she ran back to the mirror. she stared at herself. she couldn’t forget. she wouldn’t let herself. irene shut her eyes, and when she opened them, she could’ve sworn she saw millard’s reflection in the mirror behind her.

she took a hesitant step backwards and felt an invisible hand around hers. she looked up, where millard’s reflection was doing the same. and then it was gone. it was all gone.

she sank to the floor, and she began to cry.

**Author's Note:**

> This is really just a concept for Irene. This was written before I even came up with a peculiarity or bitterness for her. So this probably isn't canon.  
> (nah she's an AU vision person this is just an AU in which she's Millard's sister instead)


End file.
